BC Adventures - East coast of Vancouver Island

It's been many years since I've traveled the east coast of the island, but it has so much to offer, that we went back!  From nature, to wineries, to beaches and forest trails, there's something for everyone.  

We were hoping to visit a few more wineries, cideries or distilleries, but due to Covid19, most were either closed, had limited opening hours or restricted by appointment only.  Traveling with kids is not easy to hold to a timetable, so we only went to a couple this time around.  We drove along the oceanside route, Highway 19A, to explore and returned on Highway 19 to get back home.

We started with Damali Lavender Farm and Distillery in Cobble Hill.  A small tasting room selling their wine and lavender products.  We visited the lavender fields and went to the labyrinth at the lower end too.  

From Victoria, we drove up the coast to Parksville.  The beach and boardwalk is nice at sunset and the Community Park is awesome for the kids.  I've never seen so many different things for all ages, from flying foxes, trampolines, different styles of climbing structures and see saws, along with the usual slides.

Even though it was a bit rainy and grey, we headed out to Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park.  When the tide is out, it stretches for miles!  It seems like you can walk forever.  And look out for little bunnies...

Qualicum Beach is a smaller beach, but still nice.  

We stopped into Wayward Distillery in Courtenay, where they make everything from honey.  Mmm, the Drunken Hive Caramelized Rum is tasty!  And they started making hand sanitizer too, in their lovely bottles.  

Miracle Beach Provincial Park in Black Creek is one of my favourites, with a narrow trail entrance that opens up to a wide beach, it builds up anticipation to the fresh ocean air.  

Up in Campbell River, we went to Elk Falls Provincial Park and the Suspension Bridge.   An easy trail to a platform for anyone who wants to view the falls but not go on the bridge.  The bridge is totally sturdy and well constructed and maintained by the local Rotary Club.  

On the way home, we stopped at Rotary Park in Courtenay so the kids could play in the playground.  There is a display of airplanes and a small urban trail, the Courtenay Riverway.

All in all, a long road trip, but with so many interesting places, it's hard not to stop!  Plan your trip with 

http://vancouverisland.com/

They have maps of the wineries and all the good stuff!

BC Adventures - Port Renfrew

Since Covid19 disrupted almost all travel worldwide, what is a traveller to do?  Explore locally, that's what! 

Vancouver Island is a natural choice for people from Vancouver, it's close, easily accessible and fairly inexpensive.  I've never been to the southwestern part of the island, so this was a new place for me to explore and I was just amazed. 

From Victoria, we headed west into Sooke and then along Highway 14 to the end, town of Port Renfrew.  Not long after leaving Sooke, did we realize that there is limited cell phone reception and data coverage.  This is great for a vacation, as it really allowed us to unwind by detaching from our regular lives. 

Port Renfrew is the end of the road for anyone hiking the Juan de Fuca Marine Trail, and the beginning for most hikers on the West Coast Trail.  For us, it was a great place to stop and spend as little or as much time in the forest, along the trails, or on the beach as we liked.  3 nights and 4 days felt like a week long rejuvenation retreat.   We stopped at most of the beaches to see what the vibe was like.

French Beach is the first one along the highway.  It's the smallest one of them all, with a small playground, green grass, picnic benches and toilets, it's a great stop for lunch.  

China Beach is at the southern end of Juan de Fuca Trail, just west of Sooke.  It is a very sandy beach, great for small kids to wander and play and for adults to chill.  We went on a misty morning, which made for a different experience than a hot summer day.

Sombrio Beach has a gravel entrance and we decided not to go but we heard it's a surfer beach.

Botanical Beach is on the northern end of Highway 14.  It was amazing to explore for hours looking in the tidal pools when it was low tide.  Suitable for families and all ages, this beach has miles of coastline to wander, veg or sunbathe.  You can see kelp, mussels, crabs, purple sea urchins to name a few things.

We drove north for several kms on a gravel road to reach Avatar Grove, home of Canada's gnarliest tree.  They have 2 sets of trails, very short, and moderate elevation.  This old growth forest has very tall trees with huge tree trunks!

It was such a peaceful trip, I highly recommend it.  It's closer to Vancouver than Tofino, less crowded and less expensive.  Give the smaller communities your tourism dollars, let's make this year Discover Your Backyard year!

Island hopping in Hawaii - Oahu

Known as "the gathering place" or "energizing" Oahu is the most popular island of the chain, with Honolulu and Waikiki beach the regular tourist spots. 

We rented a motorcycle from Cruzin Hawaii.  Our first stop is Waikiki Beach and what a stark contrast to the calm and less populated beaches on the other islands we've already been to.  It is packed with families in January and this isn't even peak season.  This prompted us to move on to less crowded, but still beautiful beaches around the island.

 Along the east coast, we went to Kualoa Ranch and what a beautiful property and great company!  They are family owned and operated and their jaw dropping scenery has been the location for many film shoots nad weddings.  They have tours like movie tours of film locations, ziplining, horseback rides, and ATV rides.  They are also a working cattle ranch, have a piggery, grow oysters among other fruits and vegetables. You can find their beef, pork and oysters in their cafeteria.  They collaborate with the local community with events and the housing they own around their property is for rental for employees and community members.  I expect they will continue with sustainable actions for years to come. 

We rode along the north shore looking for surfers.  The famous Banzai Pipeline is here and the birthplace of surfing.  Being close to the equator means the sun sets early, around 6pm and it's quick, we stopped for gas and missed it!  It's not like Vancouver, where days are longer and we can enjoy sunsets for longer.   

One of main trails is Diamond Head, but a local told me about one that has better views and has shade for almost 80% of the way.  It's Kulioloulou ridge trail.  It's not good for families though, as it is along a ridge.  But what a great view.  And we saw a beach that we went looking for right after our descent. 

In the south, we explored Waikiki and looked for live hula shows or Chinese New Year events with no luck.  As tourists, we saw listings for events but when we looked for them, we couldn't find them.  This is a shopping, eating and nightlife spot, great for groups!  Tons of options for every budget, very lively.  There are ABC stores on every block!  There are coupon books on every block.  Lots of salespeople handing out promos.  Lots of buskers. 

We headed to Chinatown to see if there were any Chinese New Year festivities, but there were none.

The bus is an option for the Honolulu area, which means you can save money instead of getting a rental car.   And if your hotel is in Honolulu, everything is within walking distance.  Our driver said so many people make that mistake the first time they come and never use their rental car they previously booked.

Oahu is a great choice for first timers to Hawaii.  Honolulu is the hub for Hawaii.  The tourist attractions are readily accessible, there are a lot of places to see and lots of things to do, for all ages.  There's Pearl Harbour and other related historical sites, public beaches for swimming and snorkelling, shopping centres, Polynesian Cultural Centre, royal palaces, golf, etc.  So much food to eat as well, from malasadas to shrimp trucks, ramen, poke, kalua pork, plate lunch, loco moco, etc.   Tourism Hawaii does not have all inclusive resorts because they want you to go out and eat at their restaurants and go out to their entertainment venues. 

For people who want to cruise around Hawaii, The Norwegian's Pride of America is the only cruise line that has 7 day sailings! 

Island hopping in Hawaii - Kauai

The third island on our trip is the "garden isle" of Kauai.  80% of this island is not accessible by land.   This is a tropical paradise!  Hikers and outdoor lovers will love this island.  This island has the only navigable river, Wailua river, available for kayakers.

We landed in Lihue, on the east side of the island.  It's the commercial hub of the island.

We wanted to hike the Kalaulau trail along the famous Napaali coast, but with the current storm, the trail was closed.  We had heard that some people were stranded on the other side of a river and had to be rescued due to the raging river water levels.  The Napaali coast, on the west side of the island, is best seen by helicopter or boat tour and this is our only hiking option.  We were recommended to hike the upper part of Waimea Canyon State Park, through Koke'ee State Park to get a view.

Driving down the highway from the north, we stopped in Hanalei town.  Such a quaint little town, you can see waterfalls from the mountains, just on the street, while you're having coffee and pastries!  Such an awesome view.  Can you count how many?  I'm sure I saw more than 20.

We drove around the north and east sides of the island exploring the the towns.  It's only 1 highway, and it goes almost all the way around, except in the northwest corner.  We saw Princeville, a resort town with golf courses.  We saw Anini beach, which had campgrounds, and has black lava rocks and golden sand.  We saw Kilauea lighthouse at the end of a wild bird refuge.




On the west side of the island, we went to the Hanapepe art walk, which happens every Friday night.  It's "the biggest little town" on the island, and this event is full of food vendors, open art studios and live music.  Great fun for a couple of hours.

On Saturday morning, the biggest farmer's market on the island is at Kauai Community Market.  I saw egg fruit and strawberry papaya that was new.

Waimea town and beach goes on for miles and miles, but we heard it's a spot for sharks, so no swimming!  The locals hang out here, as seen by the 4x4s.  I heard that locals drive Tacomas and tourist rents Hummers and Jeeps.

Waimea Canyon State Park is gorgeous.  No wonder it's called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific because it's just like it, but more lush and green.  It's a much smaller park that I thought, with several lookout points, a picnic spot and 1 trail at the northern end.  Still stormy, the Kalaulau trail was clouded in.

As recommended, we went to Koke'ee State Park and headed to the trails.  Wai'ale'ale trail is one of the wettest places on earth, with 500 inches of rain per year on average.  Pihea trail had great views of the coast and I saw people sitting on the edges!  Photographers with long lenses could be found trying to get the best picture.  I would highly recommend a visit.

In the south, we stopped at Poipu, a resort town and saw the Sprouting Horn, which pushes ocean water out through a lava tube sometimes reaching 6 ft in the air.  Poipu is a great snorkeling spot. There's so many hotels here, it's a great spot for families who don't want to travel too far with little kids.  There is a protected bay and 2 lifeguards.  Snorkel rental is available from Nukikomo surf Shop.  We stopped at Koloa town, which is more antique style.

To protect the fish and coral, reef safe sunscreen is recommended when entering the ocean for swimming or snorkelling.  And bring an umbrella if you need shade, most beaches in Hawaii don't have much shelter from the sun.

Next time, we'll have to come back to the Kalaulau trail, see the view from Canyon Lookout and visit Kapa'a town for the ocean views.

Island hopping in Hawaii - Big Island

The second island we went to was the "inspiring" Big Island of Hawaii.  We flew into Hilo on the windward (east) side of the island.  The leeward (west) side is usually more populated and sunny, but we chose to do that because we are interested in seeing Hawaii Volcanos National Park.  This island has 2 active volcanos on it.  Kilauea erupted in 2018 and is now empty of lava.  Manua Kea is currently inaccessible to the public.

We took a quick drive to Kona, on the west coast.  It's about 2 hours east of Hilo.  It was definitely more sunny on this side!  The town is very small and very touristy.  You can also fly into this airport if you want to stay near the resorts.

This island has 11 micro-climates and we can see it everywhere we go.  It can be sunny in one spot, then rainy in another, then arid, then really lush, which meant seeing desert, then rolling hills, then lush rainforest, then lava.  It's quite interesting!

This island is known for it's Kona coffee.  Kona city is on the leeward side, but there are many coffee plantations.  We opted to see Greenfell Coffee Farm, which is still family owned and operated, and grows fruit as well as coffee.  I didn't know there were 20 varieties of avocados!

In the south eastern part of the island,

Hawaii Volcanos National Park was my favourite place on this island.  It's very busy with lots of tourists, but very well managed and has many knowledgeable staff to make sure you enjoy your visit.

We took a tour and hiked down the caldera.  We saw lush vegetation which was once the inside of the barren volcano.  We saw invasive species and steam coming from the vents.

We drove the Chain of Craters road and saw signs for previous lava flows.  There are 2 kinds of lava, the exploding kind and the flowing kind.  At the end is this arch.  Because the weather was not cooperating, we were lucky to see the caldera of the main volcano when it was sunny, and then after lunch, it completed clouded over and it was raining by the time we got to the bottom of the caldera.



I highly recommend a visit to this park, and stay all day to enjoy all it has to offer.  You can even stay in the volcano, there is 1 hotel!

We went to a local tavern in Hilo to enjoy Hawaiian music.

We went to the Saturday Hilo Farmer's Market to get fresh fruit.  Bring cash!  They have exotic fruit like mangosteen, pink guava, rambutan, apple bananas, butter avocado, breadfruit, longan, etc.  They have the market several days a week, but Saturday has the most vendors.  Having food allergies meant that I was having trouble finding food compatible with my diet, but fruit is also a treat, it's like my dessert.








We went to the Imiloa Astronomy Centre.  Get the word of the day from the website and you can save some money on admission.  If you like space and science, this is a great place to spend a few hours.  We saw Awesome Light, Mirrors in the Sky show in the planetarium, which was about observatories.  Big Island has a lot of observatories from agencies around the world because of this island's great position of clear skies.  Sometimes they have star gazing parties, that would've been fun!  At this time, Mauna Kea observatory was closed to the public.

We made a quick stop at Kaumana Caves.  Bring a flashlight, it is dark!!  It's very cool to step into a red rock cave and into the dark.

This is one of the wettest placest in the world, with 200 - 400 inches of rain per year.  I thought Vancouver was wet, but it only gets 50 inches/yr on average.

Next time, I will have to visit Papakolea beach (green sand beach), one of 4 in the world.  The green sand is produced by olivine crystals in the beach beside the cinder cone that erupted many years ago and the bay traps the crystals there.  and Akaka Falls, the tallest waterfall in Hawaii.

Island hopping in Hawaii - Maui

So many of my friends and family have been to Hawaii, and after becoming a travel agent, I had to go see what all the fuss was about.  So, with a friend, we decided to island hop the 4 major islands in January.  After doing some online travel agent training and going to a Tourism Hawaii event, I felt quite prepared to see the sights.  But I realized quickly that reading and being there are totally different, which is why I believe that travel is an experiential thing.  You can be an armchair traveler, but you can never forget your experiences!  

Our first island is "captivating" Maui, known for it's BEACHES.  We went to Lahaina, on the west coast, the first night for a great sunset.  We didn't know that a storm was quickly approaching.  

We went snorkelling at Ahihi Kinau Natural Reserve in the south, because some other tourists told us it was a good spot.  It was not a great beach as it was all lava rocks, but there were lots of fish in the ocean.  No lifeguards here, but if you're a good swimmer, it's fine.

One of the big natural attractions here is Haleakala National Park, and volcano which looks like the moon.  It's on the east side.  Unfortunately, we were stormed out.  It's 10,000 ft above sea level and we drove through many different micro climates on the way up, only to be stuck in the clouds.  And it was warm and sunny at the bottom, but near freezing at the top.  It's a good thing we dressed in layers!

Onwards to the Road to Hana, known as one of the most scenic drives of the worlds, full of twists and turns, waterfalls and rainbows.  We downloaded the Gypsy driving app.  It was super useful and we researched which stops we wanted to do so we could spend more time at them.  

The most popular spots are Wailua Falls, Waimoku Falls, rainbow eucalyptus trees, bamboo forest and Oheo Gulch.  Haleakala and Oheo Gulch are at different entrances, but your admission fee is good for the entire park.  With this huge storm, which has seen winds and rainfall like never before, the waterfalls were water-FULL and gushing.  It was even bigger than what the tourist signs and diagrams say, as they caution people trying to swim across or near the falls, and that water levels change quickly which may lead to rushing water and ... unfortunately death if you fall in.

Black sand beach and Wai'anapanapa state park was my favourite!  With stark black lava rock and sand in contrast to the lush green foliage, blue water and crashing white sea foam, it was wonderful to look at.

If you can stay in Hana for 1 night, I would recommend it.  It would allow you to spend more time on your journey rather than rush and see everything.  It may cost a bit more, but why rush through an 11 hour day just to drive home to the same place you stayed the night before?

Well, we'll have to come back to see the "Mars" landscape, experience First Fridays in Lahaina and see more sunsets.  We had a lot of rainy days in the 4 days we were there.  But this was a quick island hopping trip to get a feel for the island.  I can see why people love this island.

Alaska short cruise

We're aboard the Radiance of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, and on our way to Ketchikan.  It's a short 4 day itinerary, just to give us a taste of Alaska.  It's my second cruise.

We have a balcony cabin; so nice to stand outside by the water :)

We departed Vancouver and sailed under the Lions Gate Bridge.  They have a Sail Away party on the top pool deck with entertainment.  Being a smaller ship, the bridge deck was so close and it was a view I'd never had before.  People on the bridge waved as us and we waived back, super fun!

On board, we explored the decks, the pool, the bars, the spa, the gym, the stores, the theatres and the restaurants.  On day 1, there are so many deals, limited time offers for drink and specialty dining packages.

Royal Caribbean publishes a daily Cruise Compass newsletter to let you know what's going on around the ship. This is great for planning which events you want to go to, as well as which parts of the ship to avoid!  Since it's me and a friend traveling, we were staying away from kids's zones.  We attended spa days, destination talks, got port info, and champagne art auctions.

They have My Time eating, which means you don't need a reservation at the dining room to sit and eat.  And Royal Caribbean is family oriented, with a rock climbing wall, mini golf, family pool but also an adults only pool.   There's a casino, dance lessons, a nightclub and this ship is outfitted with almost $8 million dollars of art pieces.  Starquest is a rotating bar in a nightclub.

Being on the cruise ship in September means it's end of the Alaska sailing season.  The retail stores have everything Alaska related on sale, including toques, plush toys, souvenirs and even liquor is really cheap.  But the Royal Caribbean souvenirs are still retail priced as well as the essentials, like gravol.

We lost cell coverage by the end of day 1, which was a blessing, so we could just enjoy the ship and each other's company.

On day 3, we arrived at Ketchikan, our 1 and only port.  It's a very small town.  You can buy tours on the ship or when you disembark.  We decided to do the later, but ended up thinking we could've just explored the city on our own.  We wanted to see wildlife, but didn't see any bears.  We have totem poles in Vancouver, so we skipped that portion of the city.

We saw colourful Creek St., the shops and restaurants.  Some people say that some stores are owned by the cruise lines but I was not able to confirm that.  Some local tour operators say that some business have foreign ownership and 'they' take a piece of the tourism pie during the cruising season and leave after.

We decided to hike Deer Mountain Trail in the Tongass National Forest.  We want to get to the top for the view, but never made it because it was longer than we thought and we started after lunch.  We kept seeing views to the port and thought we'd reached the top, but we weren't.  And we were keeping a close eye on the time to ensure we got back before the ship sailed away.

We had specialty dining at Samba Grill, a Brazilian steakhouse.  The meat was great, and too much to eat even.  But it was a great at the back of the ship and I saw 2 whales.   I heard people were seeing lots as we sailed.

There was a magic show, comedian, musical and Crazy Quest.  This quest is a signature Royal Caribbean game and for adults only!

In summary, this is a great option for a short round trip getaway from Vancouver where you can enjoy being disconnected from technology and being connected to friends and family.